"WOW! Climax, you've done it again!"

This is a true CLIMAX game, and like all of them, is EXCELLENT! the only reason i didn't give it 10 is because I personally prefer the classic Climax greats, Shining Force and Landstalker.

Summary: It's a dungeon-run with a Climax theme. Period. And rightly proud of it!

Plot: Some of the coolest Climax heroes- Nigel (complete with Friday), Lady, Pyra from S.I.T.D and the hamster god himself, JOGURT!!!!!- are among the adventurers who get drawn out of their own world by a mad dungeonmaster of uncertain identity and plonked into what is, in my opinion, a PERFECT little world with lots of nice LONG dungeons. They want to leave the world, because even though it is perfect, they kinda miss their homes. To do this, they have to go down all the dungeons until the deranged dungeonmaster guy gets bored of their escape attempts and makes an even bigger dungeon with the promise of freedom if they get through it alive. Not much of a plot to it, but it doesn't really matter, cause its all just a bit of an experiment, and it really is a very very nice world.

Graphics: Imagine Landstalker in 3D with big sprites. Not what a graphics freak would call good graphics- everything is big and blocky with bright colours- but it doesn't take ages going through epic video sequences, and you can always tell exactly what is happening, so what more do you want? The combat scenes are good- every sword maneauver looks different, and once again they take only seconds. Some of the wide variety of monsters look really cool, especially the rabbits with mallets. Nigel is gorgeous.

Music: atmospheric beyond comparison. every character has their own theme tune, and there isn't a tune in the game that doesn't exactly fit the context. My only regret is: no Landstalker remixes!

gameplay: there are a million and one things to do on Time Stalkers. The first thing you'll want to do is work out the incredibly complicated statistical system. This could have been a pain, or even the made the game unplayable, but fortunately you don't need to understand it all to play it. Fights are often over in five seconds. When you've understoo enough to play the game, you can start going up ranks, organising ever-increasing lists of techniques, capturing and rearing monsters, playing VMU games and using Sodexho-esque 'tokens' as a currency for buying more unusual items. There's another thing to do: observe the NPC's lives.
NPCs are normally annoying morons who get in your way, but not in Time Stalkers. Here, they have their own little lives and wander from place to place, often with hilarious adventures of their own. My favoruite, incidentally, is Doctor Anna, the mad biologist and monster-resurrection specialist. She is REAL scary- she has a dissection obsession which even extends to your own characters! Another thing this game does is LIST. Everything you can possibly collect, it's on a list. And you WILL go back and collect them all, because the LIST is there. There are even collectible items you can display in a special trophy room in your HQ.

Atmosphere: Even watching the NPCs can make you emotional!

conclusion: buy it and put it next to your copy of Landstalker.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/04/02, Updated 05/04/02